Genealogy is a travel to the land of your ancestors. Some people are curious to know about their family history and the roots of their family. Do you want to walk to the trail of family history like everyone else?
Advancements in technology and the availability of the Internet have made genealogy research far less complex. You can find the digital trail that will point you in the right direction.
A person’s desire to know his or her family history is shaped by several reasons. One of which might be the preservation of their ancestors into the larger historical picture.
This task entails the satisfaction of an individual’s responsibility towards their bloodline. And it can fulfill their urge to tell their inherited stories and inspirational quotes to their circle of friends and acquaintances.
Let me show you some of the interesting philosophical aspects of genealogy.
Please check out Owain’s Why Research My Family History – The Reasons post that will show you more reasons why people research their ancestry.
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Process of Genealogy Research
The search for your ancestors is derived from curiosity about their way of life.
This area of research is a fairly complex one with multiple processes of data sources. It can take into account the sources, sorting of information, and drawing resulting evidence accordingly.
Some of the procedures involved in researching for your ancestors are the following:
1. Genetic Investigation
The DNA of a person is one of life’s beautiful mysteries. It is something embedded in your blood that has all the answers to your burning questions.
The analysis of your DNA will reveal the history of your ancestors, which we are all particularly interested in. The three specific parts of the DNA are mitochondrial DNA, Y-Chromosome, and Autosomal DNA.
The combination of these components of your DNA can shed some light on the trail you are supposed to follow when searching for your predecessors.
DNA tests can give you a clue as to whether you are related to someone or not.
Genetic test results on an individual are compared to the databases of descended people. This comparison is then used to find an appropriate match.
One such project is the Molecular Genealogy Research Project that is devoted to research on how people are related to one another.
Please check out the DNA Genealogy Testing section of this site for further information.
2. Genealogy Software
This particular kind of software is designed to collect, sort, store and exhibit genealogical data. When researching there is a good chance that you will get basic information about the family you are looking for.
This information can include the births, marriages, and deaths of your ancestors.
A lot of programs allow you to include more information as well. But it can be difficult to keep track of the authentic sources of data that is collected.
These programs can also help you to create family charts and reports.
Your created family tree can be exported into a GEDCOM format. This will help you to share your tree with other individuals, i.e. your relatives.
The software creators can include advanced features like:
- Restricting information on a particular person,
- Add sound files,
- Same-sex marriages,
- Historical family books.
Genealogy software can come in handy if you want to search for your family history. It can help you to find sources from other databases as well, for example, Ancestry, or FindMyPast.
Please check out the Genealogy Software section of this site for further information.
3. Social Networking Services
The data generated from genealogy software can be easily used for collaboration purposes as well.
People use this information to write up their family history as well as family trees on social networking platforms. The software can help you to create a family website, or even add your tree to a local database.
4. Power of Volunteering
The contributions of volunteers are commendable in the field of genealogy. If someone is on the journey to finding their ancestors. like Owain, they will also want to help others as well.
There are numerous online groups and platforms like mailing lists and Rootschat that help people to find their ancestors. These tools help by requesting records, obtaining advice on how to research others, and containing a lot of fun activities as well.
Volunteers work closely with genealogists to log and name indexes for the records collected. The preservation of this information is imperative.
Anyone wanting to discover the homeland of their ancestors is encouraged to take photographs. This activity can help by giving the researcher clues to their ancestors’ past.
A structured volunteer program was also rolled out a couple of years ago by a group of genealogists joining the community from around the globe.
These groups are focused on finding the ethnicity, geographical areas, and surname of any particular descendant that they are investigating.
These volunteers travel around the world and teach others about the importance of preserving anyone’s family records.
They also offer seminars and classes and assist in transcription projects as well.
Philosophical Aspects of Genealogy
Genealogy is not a leisure activity. It stems from a person’s inquisitiveness of the world and his or her place in it. People naturally start to ask some of the fundamental questions about their past, present, and future.
The satisfaction of telling the stories of your ancestors is a joyful moment and an insightful experience for the seeker.
If we take a closer look, the questions asked by the person about their family history are also an ultimate foundation of all the religions.
Your curiosity takes you to your ancestors and to the creation of this world which ends up with the divine power that has created everyone around us. In this way the philosophical link between religion and genealogy is profound.
If you see the flip side of the coin, you will realize that you are the culmination of multiple generations before you. This is the opposite side of the mirror telling you to invert your family tree and see a different perspective of life.
You are the future of the generations before you.
You are the defining moment in your life and this process will carry on until resurrection.
Conclusion
There is a higher probability that your ancestors might have gone through a lot of hardships. Their life was considerably more difficult than yours today due to many different factors.
The knowledge of their sacrifices will give you the strength to move on and create a legacy for the coming generations.
Thank You and Please Leave A Comment
I hope you enjoyed this Walk to the Trail of Family History guide. If you have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below.
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This science is an integral part of history, which is especially important for those who are looking for the ancestors. The main thing in genealogy is to choose the right approach of collecting information.
It is history that is personal to us all, and I believe that every should research their ancestry.
I found this article very interesting as I too have thought about researching my past family. I wanted to start with my grandparents as I had only ever met one of them, my mothers mother. My father never mentioned his parents when he was alive. I thought this was odd and done a bit of research, I could not find his name under the births for his date of birth. I spoke to my sister about my dad’s sister who we used to see now and again as children.
She told me that she thought my dads sister was adopted, I thought then maybe my dad was adopted. I did more research and found out he was adopted and got a copy of his birth certificate. But I am still confused as it doesn’t really tell me who was his birth mother so I can do more research. I have therefore come to a dead end.
Anyway, reading your post has got me thinking about it again.
Thanks for the info,
Frank
Thank you Frank for your comment. I am glad to read that family history has interested you. Unfortunately we will encounter brick walls during our genealogy journey.
It’s great to see though that you have made some progress. I am planning to write some guides about finding records for adopted relatives.
For the meanwhile I hope you will check out the rest of this site as I’m sure you will find plenty of useful information to help you along the way.
All the best,
Owain
I don’t have any idea of my ancestors nor their identities of who they are. At least, I’d know the tribe or the nature of their business back then. Even a hint of their daily lives and their interests. Yet, I don’t know.
I tried researching my family history and found out that my lineage traveled from the Philippines to several parts of the United States back in early 1800s. They are the Tejanos. I googled them and found that the Tejanos are the derivation of Texans or musicians. From there, I got the idea that probably my ancestors were musicians, resulting in the surname itself.
That’s all I know about my ancestry. So, it’s no surprise that almost everyone in my maternal side are fond of music. 🙂
Mecyll
That’s great Mecyll. I am glad to hear that you have made a start on your family history. After all it does take one step to start your journey.
You can find helpful guides by checking out the rest of this site.
I wish you all the best,
Owain